Clannad episode 24 ~Tomoyo Chapter~

I just want to mention before anything else that I am not really a Tomoyo fan. I like her as a character, but I don’t think she’s as great as everyone depicts her as. Anyway, so as much as it pains me to see Tomoya with Tomoyo instead of Nagisa, I still really enjoyed this episode. I’m glad it wasn’t based on the manga like I expected because if it was, it would have definitely been a disappointing ending. Instead, the story basically went back in time with the series and made Tomoyo, Tomoya’s love interest. So, Tomoya is back to being a regular delinquent, which he seems so proud to be. As Tomoyo gets elected to be the school president, the time she is able to spend with Tomoya becomes less and less. It also doesn’t help when rumours are constantly been flown around about the two. Even though Tomoya is still in love with her, he realizes that the only way for Tomoyo to reach her full potential and dreams would be if he stayed out of the picture. Except, the more there lives grow apart, the more he wants to have her close. The whole thing was just very sweet and heartwarming. I didn’t really feel a Clannad vibe to the whole episode until the very last scene, which I would have to admit was amazing. I’ll at least give some credit to that romantic scene even if it did upset me at the same time.

Everything seemed relatively the same to the Clannad we’re all used to except for the animation, which seemed just a little bit different to me. Was I the only one who felt it didn’t seem as high-quality as it usually does? It is sort of hard to explain what I mean by that, but it doesn’t really matter because the animation was still beautiful. I’d also assume that it was probably not it’s best quality because it is an informal episode. My favourite part in the whole episode was definitely getting to see Youhei with his hair dies back to “normal”. I actually mentioned something about his hair when I saw episode 23 because of his sister. It really makes you realize how good he looks with blond hair. The colour just goes so well with his annoying personality, but the scene was still cute. In general, he didn’t really fit in with the rest of the episode. It seemed dedicated solely to Tomoya and Tomoyo, so he just kind of ruined some of the moments by being there. Anyway, he was basically only there for comic relief and to show that Tomoya still has one friend even if he never met Nagisa. Originally, before this episode came out, I expected to see some of the other characters in this episode, but then I realized it was Nagisa who technically brought them altogether in the first place because of the drama club. Also, once again no Fuko involved at all (I didn’t expect her in this episode though), when will she get her own OVA? I bet she even be forgotten for the second season… In all, the episode really managed to fill my Clannad thirst, now I just have to wait for After Story!

@Benjamin Chang: This was an OVA, which was meant to be an alternate story. It doesn’t have anything to do with the main plot, so by the time the next season comes around, it’ll be back to the same pairing of Nagisa x Tomoya